Introducing Malcolm Booden!

 I am excited to announce that Malcolm Booden, my friend and fellow networking instructor, has agreed to take over my CCDE training business. I first met Malcolm when he attended my training course during his pursuit of the CCDE certification. Malcolm earned his CCDE certification in 2017 (CCDE #2017::37). Since then he has started an independent consulting business and his own highly-successful training company, concentrating on network design.

Malcolm will be an excellent CCDE instructor; he knows what it takes to succeed in this certification program. He is hard at work adapting my training content for the transition to CCDE version 3. I am excited to see how Malcolm brings his fresh perspective to this program.

Malcolm’s website can be reached at https://training.mnbnetworks.tech, and his CCDE training courses will be available at https://training.mnbnetworks.tech/pages/ccde-training. If you want to purchase the self-paced CCDEv2 content, please reach out to Malcolm via email at ccdetraining@mnbnetworks.tech.

Departure from Teaching

 To the CCDE Community:

I have decided to step away from CCDE training to pursue a new opportunity. For all of my current students, I will continue to support your CCDE efforts. My last CCDE review session will be held on August 21st, 2021. If you have already signed up for my training you are invited to attend. Any new students who sign up before that date you may also attend. After that, I will be available via email and Slack to support your CCDE preparation until you've passed the practical exam.

I will not be offering any additional training opportunities beyond August 21st, 2021. I am working hard to find a strong instructor that I can trust to continue supporting CCDE candidates. As soon as I have finalized this handover I will make an announcement.

Thank you to all of my students over the years. This has been the most rewarding and interesting professional endeavor of my career. The CCDE program is in great hands at Cisco; I look forward to hearing success stories from CCDE candidates for years to come.

Jeremy

 

What CCDEv3 Means to You and Me

Cisco's CCDE Version 3 announcement brings about significant changes to our favorite certification program. As the year progresses I will write articles about the specific changes and how candidates can prepare for the new version of the exam. For now, I would like to cover what moving to the next generation of this program means to three groups - Existing CCDEs, Active CCDE Candidates, and Prospective CCDE Candidates.

Existing CCDEs

"Once a CCDE, always a CCDE"... provided you complete your recertification requirements every three years, of course. Cisco lists six different recertification possibilities:



The CCAr method is unavailable, as that program has almost certainly been retired. The CCIE Lab method is also unlikely to be helpful, as it is extremely rare for CCDEs to pursue an additional Expert level cert (a tip of the hat to those of you who have done it!). The easiest recertification method, in my opinion, is to pass the CCDE Written Exam (either the current 352-001 exam, or after November 1st, the new 400-007 exam). Oddly enough, the CCDE Written is the only exam in Cisco's portfolio that will, by itself, recertify your Expert-level status (whether CCIE or CCDE). The other recertification methods require two or three successful exam attempts. Perhaps this will encourage more CCIEs to pursue the CCDE certification.

It is also possible to earn credit toward recertification with continuing education credits and by contributing to the Cisco certification programs through writing or reviewing exam questions. As a CCDE instructor, I am ineligible to use this last method, so I can't provide any insight into it.

One other fun aspect of the new CCDE program is that all existing CCDEs (as of November 2nd, 2021) will earn an additional accolade, the "Cisco Certified Specialist – Design Core" badge. No exam necessary.. congratulations!

Active CCDE Candidates

Active CCDE candidates will have three opportunities to pass the current version of the CCDE Practical exam before the November 2nd 2021 switchover. If you are a student of mine, please be aware that you will have access to my updated CCDEv3 content as it is released (target is October 2021). It is my hope that you pass before the switchover, so please let me help you in any way possible.

Prospective CCDE Candidates

If you are considering pursuing the CCDE certification, you have a minor dilemma. You can try to start your pursuit now and pass before the switchover, or you can target the new version. The differences between the technical content on the two exams is not significant (something like 80% overlap, in my estimation). If you need help deciding which path to take, please reach out to me. You can reply to this email and describe your situation. Given the content overlap and my policy of continued access to materials, there is no risk to studying using my materials now, and targeting the version 3 of the exam.

As mentioned above, I will provide more detailed information on the differences between the exam versions in future blog posts and newsletters. CCDEv3 is going to give a great boost to this certification program; I am excited to be a part of these developments!

CCDE Thoughts After Cisco Live 2019

My CCDE Thoughts After Cisco Live 2019

The CCDE exam was conspicuously absent from the grand re-imagining of the CCNA/CCNP/CCIE certification programs. Here's a brief summary of the announcements (everything takes effect on February 24, 2020):

• CCIE Routing & Switching is being renamed to CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure
• CCIE Wireless is being renamed to CCIE Enterprise Wireless
• All CCIE labs will be rewritten to include a three hour design module (similar in style to the CCDE Practical, focusing on lower-level design). The lab portion will be five hours.
• CCDA and CCDP will be retired and transitioned to equivalent CCNA and CCNP designations
• CCNA will be a single track
• All Cisco written exams (except CCDE written) will earn candidates a certification; mostly Specialist certifications
• Cisco is launching a suite of DevNet certifications (Cisco Certified DevNet Associate, Cisco Certified DevNet Professional, Cisco Certified DevNet Expert)

There is much more to this. Check the web for others' takes. I'm only really interested in CCDE :)  A good place to start is www.cisco.com/go/nextlevel. There are plenty of tools to help us understand the transitions to the new designations.

Now, for my CCDE-related thoughts. That is why you are reading, right?!


CCDE Recertification
Active CCDEs will have three years to recertify, rather than the current two years. The third year replaces the 'suspended' status (I think that was a thing for CCDE.. I never got into the situation to find out). If you do not recertify by the end of the three years, you go inactive and will need to re-take the written and practical exams to re-earn your CCDE certification.
Recertification can be completed by one of the following:

• Passing the CCDE Written
• Passing three Specialist exams
• Earning 120 Continuing Education (CE) credits
• Various combinations of Specialist exams and CE credits (check the Cisco Learning website for details)

One important note is that your new 3-year certification window begins on the day that complete recertification. Your recertification date is no longer tied to your original pass date. I anticipate lots of us playing a game of 'chicken' with that 3-year window.. the closer to the end of it that you pass (or submit your CE credits), then longer you can wait before doing it again. But if you wait too long, you lose and start back at the beginning. Be safe out there! :)

The Future of the CCDE (Jeremy's Speculation)

I must preface this by telling you I have no insight into the actual plans for the CCDE. What you will read below is my 'best guess' at where things will go, based on my historical knowledge of Cisco certification programs and my own personal logic.

Name Change?

The new Cisco Certified DevNet Expert program will almost surely be known as the CCDE program, based on the naming of it. I suppose it could be CCDNE, or CCDevE, but those seem clunky to me. This makes me think that the CCDE program will get a name change. Perhaps something that combines the Architect and Design names into a single designation? I've never gotten on board with the differentiation that Cisco has placed on Architecture versus Design. Given that the CCAr program is all-but-dead (no one has attempted it in 3+ years, if my knowledge is accurate), and that only a handful actually passed the exam, I don't think too many would be upset if they were combined.

Where Will the CCDE Fit?
I expect the future CCDE program will be an umbrella over the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure (former route-switch), CCIE Enterprise Wireless (former CCIE wireless), CCIE Data Center and CCIE Service Provider exams. It may/may not have a distinct qualification exam. If the specific CCDE written is retired, qualification may be something like “Earn two or more Cisco Certified Specialist Design badges.” This would bring the CCDE roughly in line with the CCIE lab requirement of “Pass the subject Core exam.”

If this comes to pass, and I need to repeat that this is purely my speculation, the CCDE Practical exam could turn into “four scenarios, one on each of the four mentioned silos (Enterprise Infrastructure, Enterprise Wireless, Data Center, Service Provider). The successful CCDE candidate would then become interface between the business and each of these technology areas (Security and Management would be components of each scenario). CCDEs would be tested in several ways:

Upstream toward the business- Extracting business requirements from documents, asking for missing information, recognizing constraints

Downstream toward implementation- Building coherent designs, communicating the design, adapting design to additional constraints

Multi-disciplinary design- Integrating two or more technology areas as required (for example, combining a Campus and WAN design, or adding an ACI data center to an existing environment to meet business requirements)

I do fear, and even expect, that the CCDE will become less vendor-neutral in any upcoming redesign of the program. As this past Cisco Live made abundantly clear, the Enterprise will no longer be a vendor-neutral area. All of Cisco’s most talked-about technologies (SD Access, SD WAN, ACI) are proprietary. In my view, Enterprise networks will become increasingly proprietary for the next few years, before they inevitably bounce back to open standards. We’ve all seen this before; at least those of us who’ve been around as long as I have:



Whatever happens to the CCDE program, existing CCDEs will be migrated over. Current candidates will be given at least six months notice (I expect at least two Practical dates as well) to wrap up their certifications. The CCIE announcements from this CLUS gave 8.5 months notice to candidates.

My advice, if you are seeking it, is to continue pursuing the CCDE if that is a goal of yours. Plan to finish by end of 2020, just in case the program changes significantly after that time.

Good luck, and let me know how I can help!
Jeremy

How to Differentiate Yourself in the Job Market

Most readers of this newsletter can safely be classified as experts in the field of networking. This article is intended to provide advice on how to differentiate yourself in the field, and perhaps leverage your unique experience into a more profitable career. 

This post was inspired by the Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast, specifically episode 12 . While the podcast episode is geared toward freelancers, I think we should all consider ourselves freelance network engineers. If you work for a consulting firm, you are basically a freelancer with a specific employer. Especially at the level of most CCDEs and CCDE candidates, it is the marketing of your personal experience and reputation which allows your consulting employer to find work. If you work for an end-user organization (ISP, enterprise, content provider), you may not be with the same organization for your entire career. It is quite rare for an individual to spend their entire career with a supportive, successful employer. You should do what is necessary to prepare for a move to another employer, even if you intend to stay in one place as long as possible. The best time to prepare for your next job is when you don’t need one.

There are at least one million active network engineers in the world. In the US alone, there are nearly 400,000. How can you stand out in the field? Getting certified is a big help! There are about 50,000 CCIEs in the world, and only about 400 CCDEs (many of which are reading this article). But that isn’t enough. To truly stand out, I suggest experts find a small networking niche and dominate it. The aforementioned podcast defines the term Minimum Viable Market. This is the smallest market which will support an individual freelancer’s business. Defining and owning a Minimum Viable Market seems counterintuitive; after all, why would someone want to narrowly focus their career? Isn’t it better to broaden your market so you can be open to additional opportunities? Surprisingly, no, it isn’t. The reason for this is “available time”. Once you’ve become an expert, your compensation is defined as the product of your time and your bill rate:

Hours x Rate = Income

Of these two inputs, the number of hours available is fairly static. For most, it is around 30 - 50 hours per week, or roughly 2000 hours per year. If you push yourself, you may get to 2500 or even 3000 billable hours in a year. And if you’ve tried working this many hours in a year, you’ll realize quickly that it isn’t sustainable. The range is pretty much fixed.

The actual variable in the equation is your Bill Rate. This is the lever you can push to increase compensation. The best way to do this is to become the world renowned expert in your chosen niche. The tighter you define that niche, the more likely you can stake out your position. Proving to the world that you are the best ISP engineer is difficult. You have a ton of competition, and the field is incredibly broad. It would be much better to work toward defining yourself as the world’s expert on DOCSIS 4.0 in suburban cable deployments. Rather than claiming to be the most experienced wireless access network designer, define yourself as the world’s expert in designing wireless access networks for open-air sports stadiums. IPv6 expert? Instead, IPv6 deployment for content delivery networks. I’m sure you can think of many additional examples. When determining your niche, look at your experience. We all have unique backgrounds; there should be something in there to leverage going forward.

Once you have chosen your niche, how do you stake it out? Writing books and articles will surely help. The more publicity you can generate specific to your niche, the better. Speaking engagements, especially in front of your target audience, are wonderful opportunities to define yourself to your market. You should attempt to focus your future work on opportunities in your chosen niche. This will build your reference file. I also highly recommend starting a website or blog and focusing it on the type of business you wish to work with. Name it something like “Stadium Focused Networking” and publish articles about the problems faced by these organizations. Be sure to include recommended solutions and links to other publications that address the same challenges. Your goal is to be the first person thought of when a new project in your niche begins. Rather than competing with the masses, you will be the go-to architect for you area of expertise. This makes rate negotiation much easier. Instead of competing for the opportunity, companies will be competing for your time (eventually.. hopefully).

Obviously, this sort of transition can’t be completed overnight. Like anything worthwhile, it will take work. But it is work you likely to do anyway; the goal of this article is to help you focus your work in a way that provides additional value over the long term.

By the way, I don’t recommend focusing on a specific piece of networking equipment or even a vendor. Companies generally look for experts in their field. It is better to define yourself from the business perspective instead of the technical side.

If you do decide to go down this path, I wrote an article once about Books or Blogs. I recommend reading it, as well as Scott Lowe’s well-informed reaction post. Scott’s point is valid; writing a book is quite different than writing a blog. If writing a book is something you wish to do, I recommend defining your professional goals in advance of the effort. Writing a technical book does not lead directly to profits; but writing a book to define yourself as the expert in a field is potentially worthwhile.

A Short Summary of Planes

A Short Summary of Planes (the network kind)

When the CCDE program was first developed, Cisco conveniently broke down the included technologies into five categories: Routing, Tunneling, Quality of Service, Security and Management. Cisco also provided an extensive resource list for the first four topics, consisting of RFCs, Cisco Press books and videos. The network management section was noticeably bare. I bought the one Cisco Press book listed in the category, Network Management Fundamentals. I'm sure I picked something up from from the book, but I still felt that there were gaps in my knowledge. One area I was especially unsure of was the difference between the Control/Data/Management planes. The following is my attempt to provide clarify in this area.

Let's start with the Data Plane (also known as the Forwarding Plane; they are both terms for the same concept). The function of the Data Plane is to receive packets and forward them according to a pre-programmed forwarding table. This table is known as the Forwarding Information Base (FIB). The Data Plane does not have intelligence; it is best to think of it as a hard-coded set of forwarding tables. With modern hardware, such as the Nexus 9k platform, these forwarding tables are distributed to the individual line cards. Incoming packets are classified by specific attributes, such as a layer 3 destination address and QoS marking. This information is compared to the FIB, and an outbound interface is chosen. The layer 2 destination address is updated and the packet is forwarded.

How does the Forwarding Plane get programmed? That is the Control Plane's job. The Control Plane is where routers run routing protocols. By exchanging control-plane messages, routers build a Routing Information Base (RIB). This RIB is translated into a Forwarding Information Base (FIB), which is downloaded to the Data Plane. The separation of the Control and Data Planes permits us to forward packets even when the Control Plane is unavailable, such as during an In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU).

Finally, how is the Control Plane built? That is the Management Plane's job. Whether you log into a router via CLI using telnet or SSH, or you push a configuration via SNMP or NETCONF, you are using the Management Plane to program the router. The Management Plane is also used to retrieve information from the device, such as interface statistics or the current running configuration.

I hope this helps clear up any confusion you may have had about these concepts.

Jeremy

What Drives Change in Enterprise IT

This week I am in Las Vegas attending Future:NET, a two-day conference on the Future of, well, Networking. The conference is aptly named :)

The Packet Pushers asked me to join a moderated panel with the topic “Can we Accelerate Change in The Enterprise?” This spurred me to think: Why does the Enterprise need to change? Once we build a great IT environment, why can’t we just sit back, drink our coffee and hammer TCP 80 all day long? I came up with five broad categories; presented in no particular order. Well, almost no particular order. I saved the worst for last. The examples below will be networking-centric, but the general concepts apply to most IT silos.

Reason For Change in Enterprise IT: Obsolescence

You may love your Catalyst 6500 with SUP32 supervisors. They still meet all the requirements of your network: gigabit to the user, routing protocols, security capabilities. Unfortunately, Cisco has made it clear that they no longer want to support them. Now you need to either take on the risk of using unsupported hardware/software, or you need to upgrade to the new model. Traditionally my view was to move with the vendor since the new gear provided enough benefits, like faster ports or new protocols. I am now more open to taking the risk and running unsupported gear. In some areas of networking, such as the campus, there are no compelling new capabilities to require upgrades.

This goes for provider technologies as well. Many of us remember using Frame-Relay networks which meet all of our needs. In most cases the benefits of L3VPN MPLS (or L2VPN/VPLS if you are a sadist) were not compelling, but our carriers forced us to move forward to one of those solutions.

Reason For Change in Enterprise IT: Cost Pressure

When your CIO/CTO says next year’s budget is going to shrink, often this requires new IT solutions. Perhaps we need to move from private WAN bandwidth to the public WAN. Or we need to change equipment vendors due to constantly increasing support costs.

Reason For Change in Enterprise IT: (Internal) Business Change

If we are lucky, as soon as we’ve solved all of our current IT needs, new ones arrive. If we aren’t lucky, they arrive before we’ve solved the current challenges. The latter happens far more often. Physical office/data center moves, new applications with new requirements, business-level mergers/divestitures… these all present opportunities for change.

Reason For Change in Enterprise IT: External Change

Regulators, auditors, business partners — They all have input into our IT solutions. I can’t count how many times I’ve implemented a new security product to meet some other organization’s requirements. Suppose your company has decided that Network Access Control is unnecessary. If a valued business partner makes it a requirement for ongoing cooperation, it now has become your requirement. Do not be afraid to push back, sometimes a bit of clarification with the auditor/partner is enough to find out that it isn’t as required as first believed.

Reason For Change in Enterprise IT: New and Shiny Things

When was the last time you bought a new (or new to you) car? Why did you do it? A significant number of new car purchases are result of “New and Shiny Syndrome.” There’s nothing wrong with your current vehicle, but the new one looks/smells better.  Or all your neighbors are driving new cars, and you feel left out. These are generally bad reasons to buy a new car, but it’s your money, so do what you want. Here’s a tip — maybe you should consider leasing.

If "New and Shiny Syndrome” causes you to swap out your data center LAN, or change routing protocols, you are a poor steward of your company’s IT budget. Sure, it’s more fun to attend conferences and talk about the new protocols/equipment that you are using, but this isn’t a reason to go through the expense and time of changing your environment. If you simply can’t go another day looking at your tired, boring LAN switches… change employers!

Am I missing a driver for Enterprise IT change? Let me know in the comments or via email.

Thank you,

Jeremy

CCDE Program Updates from Cisco Live 2017

This year's Cisco Live has been a busy one for CCDE candidates. Cisco offered an 8-hour techtorial, led by my friends Elaine Lopes and Russ White (among others). During this event it was announced that Cisco is returning to the pre-2012 policy of scoring CCDE practical exams after the exam. This means that candidates will no longer receive an immediate PASS/FAIL result. Scores will be provided to candidates approximately 10-12 weeks after their test date. I am sure this is disappointing news to candidates, as it is frustrating to wait. I know; I waited 12 weeks to find out I passed back in 2009. This news does not mean the return of the dreaded Open-Ended Questions on the CCDE Practical exam. Cisco is not adding fill-in-the-blank questions, so it isn't a complete return to the CCDE version 1 model.

So, what should a candidate do with this information? First, know the various places you can go to find out if you pass. During the 2008 - 2011 timeframe, there were two sources of 'pre information' for pass/fail status. The first place that was updated with a passing status was the CCDE verification tool. Candidates entered their names and various CCDE numbers (in the format 201700xx) to see if their name popped up. This was how I first discovered I passed. The second source of pass/fail information was the Pearson Cisco profile. Immediately after the exam, the test status was "Taken." At the 11 week mark, some statuses changed to "Fail." The several of us that never changed from the 'Taken" status all eventually received news that the passed. Lastly, the Cisco Certification Tracker was updated. This took place around the same time the postal mail (yes, hand-written envelopes with stamps!) arrived. I received my letter before this was updated, but for those who lived further from Cisco in the USA, this source was useful. I do not expect that Cisco is going to use the postal mail in 2017; but I didn't think they would do that in 2009 either :)

So how do you plan for your next attempt, without knowing whether you passed this one? There are two valid strategies. One, you can schedule your next exam immediately after completing the current one. Hold off on the transportation/lodging reservations. If you receive a PASS result, Cisco has historically allowed you to cancel the next Practical date without penalty. If you receive a FAIL result, make last-minute travel arrangements and try again. The downside to this is that it can be difficult to maintain your study plan if there's a chance you passed and won't need to take the exam again. This leads to the second option; only take the exam every six months. This allows you to receive you result and still have three months to prepare for the next attempt. The second option is the one I would most likely follow if it were me.

There are also several news items of note for current CCDEs as well. First, all of your recertification dates for Expert-level certifications have been synchronized! This means that whichever of your recertification dates is further out on the calendar, that is now your official recertification date for all CCIE and CCDE certifications. You no longer have to carefully manage your recertification exam to ensure it counts for all of your certs! There is no official link available where this has been published, but check your dates on the Certification Tracker.

Second, you may now recertify WITHOUT taking a written exam. Cisco has recently announced a program whereby you can recertify your Expert-level certifications with Continuing Education credits. The link to this website is http://ce.cisco.com. Take a look! If you attended Cisco Live, you already have some credits to apply to this program. I am also working to get my CCDE training included as an option for candidates. If accepted, this means CCDE candidates and even certified CCDEs will be able to recertify by attending my class and a few additional training courses.

Preparing for the August 2017 CCDE Practical Exam

You have surely heard that the May 11th practical exam was cancelled. You likely also heard why, but I’ll summarize the facts here, just in case. It is widely believed that a training company acquired actual CCDE Practical scenarios and taught from them in preparation for the February 22nd CCDE exam date. A remarkable (in my opinion, unbelievable) number of successful candidates associated with this training company passed the exam. Given this information, Cisco made the correct decision to pull these scenarios from the rotation used in the CCDE practical exam. Unfortunately, this means that Cisco cannot offer the exam in May 2017.

The unfortunate aspect of this decision is that many legitimate candidates’ preparation schedules have been disrupted. Given the eight-day notice of cancellation before the exam date, many candidates are stuck with nonrefundable travel reservations. They have also taken off time from their professional and personal obligations to prepare for an exam which is not taking place. While Cisco did provide full refunds for the exam cost, they are not offering to cover any of the travel expenses incurred by candidates. This is consistent with their prior stance. I know several CCDE and CCIE candidates who had to reschedule their exams due to Internet or power issues at the testing site. Their experiences were the same; no travel refunds, just a refund of the exam fees.

Ultimately, this incident will be viewed as a speed bump in the long-term history of the CCDE program. I am certain that Cisco will strip those who stole the exam content of their Cisco certifications, just as they have done in the past with CCIE cheats. I am also confident that Cisco will remove the CCDE credentials of those who attended the offending company’s training. This is a necessary step to restore credibility to the rest of us who earned their certification through hard work and study. This is especially true of those who passed the practical exam in February 2017, including several of my students. I saw first hand the effort each of them put into their preparation. If anyone doubts their credentials, let me know. And for those who were wondering why my list of successful candidates was a bit shorter in the last newsletter (and below), know that I specifically left off names of candidates who attended my training and are purported to have attended the other company’s class.


What Do I Do Next?

Now that the facts and speculation/gossip is out of the way, what should CCDE candidates do? First and foremost, schedule your August 29th exam ASAP. Demand for this exam date will be extremely high. If you live in a part of the world where CCDE exam seats are difficult to obtain, lock in your spot first! American and Canadian students can procrastinate as usual; it is relatively easy to find a seat in your countries. One student from Toronto recently mentioned that he has three testing centers within thirty minutes of his home. The rest of the world has to fight over spots, Hunger Games-style. A few of my European students and I estimated that there are less than seventy seats in the entire continent, and Africa has fewer than twenty. The Frankfurt testing center is notorious for filling up quickly, as is London. Recent students have had to consider traveling to Athens, Madrid, and even Istanbul to find a seat. Get yours now and save yourself the stress. Remember, you can cancel your exam with 30 days’ notice. Set a calendar reminder so you don’t forget to cancel, if you must. A secondary benefit is that your preparation will become more real when you have an exam date on the calendar. Trust me, it will improve your motivation; especially once that 30 day cancellation period has passed.

Are you a student of mine who happens to live near me in the Mid-Atlantic area of the US? If so, I’ll extend to you my standing offer to buy your lunch during the August 29th exam. There are two conditions to this offer. First, you must take the exam at the Newark, Delaware, USA test center. Second, it’s a first-come, only-one-served offer. Students begin their lunch break as soon as they have finished their second scenario, so it would not be fair if I delayed lunch for subsequent candidates to finish. If you are interested, please email me. I’ll let you know if you were the first to respond. To further entice you, know that every student who has taken me up on this offer has passed the exam during this attempt. Yes, a 100% success rate. (one out of one, so don’t get too confident!). We will of course honor the NDA during lunch; there is no value in studying/researching during your break anyway, since after lunch you will start a fresh scenario.

The most significant concern I have heard from students is regarding the new exam content. Cisco has pulled all of the compromised materials from the exam. What does that mean for candidates? Cisco is working on new scenarios, with new questions. Thus far, word from Cisco is that they are not changing the exam format. It will still consist of four scenarios over eight hours (plus lunch). The exam will still be offered at Pearson Professional centers. I expect one or more may be removed from the lineup, given the theft that occurred (it is my speculation that the content was stolen from a test center and not from a Cisco server, but that is only my guess). If you notice a test center is missing, this could be the reason.

Cisco has committed to a six-month advance notice of any changes to the format of an Expert level exam. We are currently at CCDE 2.0, or CCDE 2.1 if you count the Emerging Technologies written changes. I personally do not count this as a change in the CCDE, as I am only focused on the Practical exam, which was not affected by Emerging Technologies. Developing CCDE 3.0 is at least a year long endeavor, and there is no evidence or even rumors that this process has begun. It’s probably imminent, now that recent events have forced their hand, but my best guess is that CCDE 3.0 will arrive in late 2018 (maybe November). I will save my hopes and speculation regarding CCDE 3.0 for a future newsletter article.

If you are a Cisco employee, you can plan to attend my class in San Jose the week of August 7th 2017. I invite all current students to my next CCDE quarterly review on Saturday, August 5th at 8am ET. Simply send me an email and I will put you on the Webex invite list. If your plans permit it, my final CCDE bootcamp of the year will be held in Orlando, Florida the week of October 9th 2017. You can also attend the October class vie Webex, if traveling to Florida is inconvenient.

The CCDE certification is not going away, I can assure you of that. Cisco is committed to guiding the next generation network designers, just as they helped thousands of engineers earn recognition for their configuration talents with the CCIE program.

Jeremy

Attending Cisco Live as a CCDE Candidate

How is attending Cisco Live as a CCDE candidate different than attending normally? Well, it doesn't have to be. But if you don't approach this opportunity with an effective strategy you will miss out on some amazing opportunities!

Formal Training

Cisco provides several training opportunities for the CCDE exam. There is a four hour lab session that covers a portion of a CCDE practical exam, and an eight hour Techtorial. Elaine Lopes, the program manager for the CCDE and CCAr certifications will lead these sessions. She is accompanied by one or more Cisco Certified Architects who walk participants through the types of questions on the CCDE written and practical exams, as well as an overview of the CCAr testing procedure.


Take your CCDE Written Exam

Whether you have already passed your CCDE written or not, it can be valuable to take the exam again. I make it a point to retake the CCDE written at each Cisco Live. There are two reasons for this. One, paying out of pocket for the CCDE written is now $450 USD. Getting a free exam is like getting 25% of your CLUS registration fee back!

Second, the CCDE written and CCDE practical exams use the same basic technology stack. Keeping current with the CCDE written exam is important to me for my training, but also for my other professional responsibilities.

Social Opportunities (not just the CAE!)

Cisco Live US is the best place to meet fellow networkers, including me! I will be in Las Vegas for the conference from Monday - Thursday this year. If you also plan to be in attendance and would like to meet up, let me know. There are many opportunities to chat at the World of Solutions, Lunch, in between sessions, etc. I look forward to seeing you there!

In addition to meeting me, you can schedule a 1:1 meeting with various Cisco experts to discuss CCDE-related technologies, and of course you should take the opportunity to meet up with Elaine to see if she will spill any CCDE secrets. Just don't get your hopes up on this front, she hasn't let anything slip to me :)

Lastly, be on the lookout for a CCDE lunch-and-learn table during your lunch break. Elaine will host it, and there will surely be CCDEs available to chat about the certification program and tips on how to prepare for your exam. I intend to stop by as much as possible.

If you simply want to corner an active CCDE and question them about their preparation, you can do that too! Look for the baby blue-colored ribbons that say 'CCDE'. Most CCDEs won't bite, in my experience. They are often happy to tell their war stories regarding exam preparation strategies.

Jeremy

History of the CCDE, Part 3 -- 2013 to Present

(Click these links for Part 1 -- Origin to 2008, and Part 2 -- 2009 to 2012)

First, congratulations to all of my students who successfully passed the CCDE exam in 2016. I am proud to announce that our community of CCDE candidates has nearly reached one hundred successful students, including fourteen students this year. A recent successful student wrote the following recommendation of my training after passing his CCDE exam:

I attended Jeremy’s virtual bootcamp in October 2016, 3 weeks before my first and final CCDE attempt. The bootcamp to be extremely helpful in achieving the CCDE mindset. Jeremy covers a wide variety of technologies at a high level; the expectation is that students are already technical experts and are seeking to sharpen their analysis and design skills. These core skills are what separate CCIEs from CCDEs and Jeremy’s training material best addresses these skills. His scenarios are very realistic and, again, are primarily focused on critical thinking and problem solving, which is precisely what the real exam does. I highly recommend Jeremy’s bootcamp and self-paced study material for anyone serious about achieving the CCDE. -- Nick Russo, CCDE 2016::41

This article picks up from the beginning of 2013. Over the course of four test dates in 2013, we nearly doubled the total number of successful CCDEs. We started the year with 90 CCDEs, and added 81 more. This was by far the largest number of new CCDEs in a single year. In 2014 we literally one-upped the previous year, as 82 candidates passed the Practical exam. During these two years we nearly tripled the total number of CCDEs to 253. This still stands as the record number of passing students in a calendar year.

These two years also saw a broad diversity of CCDEs. Just looking at my successful students during this time period we saw the first CCDEs from the following countries:

• Chile
• Colombia
• India
• Indonesia
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Qatar

Over fifty of my students passed during these years. In some ways, it seems as though these years were the golden age of the CCDE program. After the great success of these years, 2015 and 2016 were slightly disappointing. Only 47 candidates were able to earn the CCDE certification in 2015, and this year saw exactly the same number of successful candidates. During conversations with CCDE program members I have learned that most of the reduction in successful candidates can be attributed to fewer candidates, and not to more difficult exams. Of course each exam date brings new content, so we cannot say with confidence that the exam difficulty has remained the same.

The last two years have also seen an global expansion of the CCDE program. I have had students pass the exam from countries such as Austria, Ghana, Luxembourg, Malaysia, and Romania. And of course, many students from the United States, Germany, France, etc. Thus far I have had successful students from 36 unique countries.

I am looking forward to what 2017 will bring to the CCDE program. With four upcoming exam dates and no announced changes to the Practical exam, we should see quite a few new CCDEs in the coming year. There are also rumors of changes to the recertification process. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading!

Jeremy

Introducing the Pristine Packets CCDE Wall of Fame

I am proud to introduce my CCDE Wall of Fame page, where I have listed all of my students who have successfully earned the Cisco Certified Design Expert certification. Congratulations to all of these individuals, and good luck to those who are taking their exam on November 17th.

You can find the full list at The CCDE Wall of Fame. If your name is missing, please let me know so I can recognize your achievement!

I expect to add several more names later this month.. With a little luck we may even reach the 100th student to pass.

Jeremy

Evaluating Your CCDE Practical Score Report

(This entry is a cross-post from my September CCDE newsletter. If you'd like to receive this to your email inbox two weeks prior to posting on my website, please sign up for my newsletter)

Over my years of helping CCDE candidates prepare for their Practical exam I have often been asked for my help in understanding the score report that an unsuccessful attempt yields. It is unfortunate when a candidate receives an unsuccessful result, but it happens often. Cisco's pass rate for Expert level exams (CCIE + CCDE combined) is approximately 15 - 20% per attempt, so more often than not, a candidate will not pass.

Unlike many of Cisco's written exams, the CCDE Practical does not give you a technology-based breakdown of your performance. While it would be great to receive something like this:

OSPF          70%

EIGRP         40%

IS-IS         30%

L3VPN         95%

Security      30%

etc, etc      10%

You will actually receive this:

1.0 Analyze Design Requirements           40%

2.0 Develop Network Designs               50%

3.0 Implement Network Design              60%

4.0 Validate and Optimize Network Design  90%

(These are made-up scores. If they match yours, I promise I wasn't looking at your paper)

So what can we do with this information? It certainly doesn't tell us which Cisco Press book to re-read in preparation for our next exam attempt. How can you build a study plan that gets will get you the crucial points to pass during the next exam date?

First, trust your gut. Your score report is given to you immediately after completion of the exam. The day's scenarios should be relatively fresh in your mind. Which of the technical topics was most challenging for you? Were there any terms or acronyms that were unfamiliar? I'm not ashamed to admit that during my CCDE Practical exam I came across at least one term that I hadn't been exposed to in my studies. This is why you'll see a few oddball acronyms in my training materials, especially during my practice exam.

Make a list of all of the topics, terms and design situations that made you uncomfortable. If it is a large list, so be it! I still haven't met a CCDE who was completely confident in their results before they saw their score report. The exam is designed to put you, the network designer, in uncomfortable spots. After all, doesn't real-world networking require compromise and educated guessing from time-to-time? The difference being that in the real-world we are allowed to use Google to validate our guesses before hitting submit.

So what does my result in each of these categories actually mean?

1.0 Analyze Design Requirements

This section is worth approximately 36% of your exam. The questions that fall into this category are of the style of 'What additional information do you require to develop your design?' Poor scores on this category reflect trouble understanding the scenario, and especially the business constraints presented. I like to think of this category as the one that tests your reading comprehension capabilities. It has been my experience, when working with students, that low scores make it practically impossible to pass the exam, as your core understanding of the scenario is flawed in some way. It is very difficult to determine the right answer to the following sections without proper knowledge of the core documents.

2.0 Develop Network Designs

This section represents the plurality of points on the exam, about 39% of the total points. These questions can be presented in many ways (multiple choice, multiple answer, diagram/hotspot, etc). The core skill tested in this category is the 'Which network design is most appropriate for this scenario?'. If your scores in this section are low, that represents a hole in your technical knowledge. Perhaps you do not understand one or more of the proposed technologies (if selecting the right solution) or the specific technology in the question (for example, where to place the BGP Route Reflector). Poor performance on this question type also makes section 4.0 (Validate and Optimize Network Design) difficult, as you are likely to go down a branch of the exam that does not have any correct answers available.

3.0 Implement Network Design

These are your implementation plan questions. As we discuss in my training, there is a specific strategy that I recommend for this question type. These represent only 13% of the total points on the exam, but with a passing score at or near 80%, every point counts. Fortunately, getting these questions wrong does not usually lead to a bad branching path.

4.0 Validate and Optimize Network Design

Although this section is only worth 12% of the exam points, I consider it the heart of the CCDE program. These are the questions that ask, 'Why did you make the design recommendation in the previous question?' or 'Why is this other proposed design not optimal?' I like to think of this question type as the one that clarifies whether the candidate knew the answer to the Design Recommendation question that came before it, or whether they had a lucky guess. It is very difficult to guess correctly twice in a row!

I hope this article has helped candidates who were unable to pass on their last CCDE Practical attempt. Next month's article will be a technical one, Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) 101.

Thank you for reading this!

Jeremy

Why You Should Prepare For Your CCDE With Jeremy

Once you commit to pursuing the CCDE certification, your next decision is how to prepare for it. Here are ten reasons why you should trust me with your training:

1) Proven Success

I have trained 10x the successful CCDE candidates as all other CCDE training companies combined. Nearly 100 of the 300 CCDE candidates who passed since I first offered my training have attended my classes. Why risk your training time and money on an unproven training vendor?

2) Focused Training

I only provide CCDE training! I am not distracted by offering training in other Cisco disciplines like CCDA/CCDP, or CCIE tracks. All of my development time is focused on this one certification. If you need training for other certifications, I will happily recommend a great provider. But I won't be able to help you myself!

3) Professional Experience

I have been a network designer/architect for 20 years. I earned my first Expert level Cisco certification (CCIE R/S #3851) in June, 1998. I have worked on the networks of several of the world's largest companies (General Electric, Comcast, Level-3, JP Morgan Chase). I am employed as a network architect at a Fortune 500 company, and I provide consulting to several additional companies. I not only teach this material, I implement it as well.

4) Teaching Experience

I have led dozens of CCDE training sessions since I started provided CCDE training in 2010. I know how to get critical concepts across to my students, and I am always available via email, Skype, or chat to offer advice and encouragement. I even earned the Certified Cisco Systems Instructor designation in 2010.

5) Long Involvement with the CCDE Program

I was present at the launch of the CCDE certification at Cisco Live in Anaheim, California in 2007. I was an active member of the CCDE beta team, and I was among the first handful of engineers to earn my CCDE certification (February 2009, CCDE #2009::3). I have lived and breathed CCDE subject matter since before other CCDE trainers had even heard of the program.

6) CCDE Success

I'm not normally one to boast, but I passed the CCDE certification exam on my first attempt. No other CCDE trainer can make this claim.

7) Clear and Legible Training Materials

As a native English speaker I am able to generate content that is easy to understand. You won't struggle to understand me whether you are in the classroom or online. This helps if you are also a native English speaker, but it is even more critical if English is not your primary language.

8) I have access to a wealth of CCDE-related minds

I am friends with many current and former CCDE program members. While this does not provide me with access to NDA materials (I would never cross that line!), it does allow me to keep current with developments in the CCDE program. My materials are always targeted at the current version of the exam.

9) Cisco Employees Trust Me, You Should Too

I have provided training for over 30 Cisco-employed CCDEs. I am a registered Cisco vendor and I have provided my classes on-site at Cisco offices. If you can't trust Cisco's judgment, who can you trust?



10) Simple Business Model

My CCDE business model is incredibly simple. You have two options:

          Option 1) Sign up for my online CCDE training for $995 USD. This entitles you to unlimited access to my online materials until you pass the CCDE Practical exam.

          Option 2) Sign up for my 5-day bootcamp class for $4995 USD. This allows you to attend one of my five-day bootcamp classes in person, or online; whichever works best for you. It also entitles you to unlimited access to my online materials until you pass the CCDE Practical exam. If you want to attend the bootcamp again you may do so for a nominal materials fee of $299 USD.

      Simple, right? No subscriptions, no upcharges, etc. Sign up for my training and I will work with you until you pass the exam. That's the guarantee I made my first students in 2010, and it is the guarantee I still provide today. Nearly 100 successful CCDE candidates can't be wrong!

Additional Information

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That Time I Taught My First CCDE Training Class

I recently noticed a great infographic floating around the inter-webs regarding the Imposter Syndrome:

It struck me that:

• Everyone I’ve had a meaningful conversation with on this topic has admitted to suffering from this affliction
• No one thinks anyone else suffers from this affliction

And I do mean it -- I have spoken with dozens of people about this topic, from all walks of life. The very best network architects I know may even suffer from Imposter Syndrome to a greater degree than less experienced members of the industry. Perhaps this is a factor in their success; they never feel like they belong (technically), so they continue to study technology and achieve certifications in a quixotic attempt to finally feel like they have accomplished ‘enough’ to fit in.

And perhaps no one experiences this as much as I do. [See what I did there… I fell into the very trap that everyone else falls into, thinking that I have it worse than the rest with regards to this affliction]. The logical, calculating portion of my brain knows this is a farce. I have lots of great experience, many successful CCDE students and multiple high-level certifications that should provide proof of my abilities. In fact, they do, to everyone but myself.

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So what does this have to do with my First CCDE Training Class (the title of this blog post)? I’m sure you can guess.

About a year after I earned my CCDE certification, I found myself in a classroom, tasked with teaching a group of network engineers how to prepare for the CCDE Practical exam. Well, they weren’t just a ‘group of network engineers;’ they were a self-selected class of fifteen Cisco SEs and NCEs. We began the class in traditional fashion, where I introduced myself and then gave each participant a few moments to do the same. As I recall, every member of the class had at least one CCIE certification, and in total there were over 40 earned CCIEs in the room. Only one of those was mine... Talk about the Imposter Syndrome! As one candidate briefly summed up his background (two Cisco Press books published, developer of the CCIE DC exam, etc, etc) the thought occurred to me — "I got lucky, passed a tough exam, agreed to teach a class I had no business leading, and now I’m going to melt into the floor at a Cisco office in Chicago once this class realizes I’m a fraud."

Fortunately, this class was full of extremely kind and patient students. The materials 

provided by the training vendor were not sufficient to help prepare the class, so I spent several late nights during the week preparing additional case studies. At the end of the week one of the students kindly photocopied my handwritten composition notebook to share with the class. A handful of class members had already attempted the exam and they had specific strategies that they wanted me to help them work through. One wanted to go through a merger scenario, so we worked up something on the whiteboard. As we proceeded through the various topics and designs that could be on the exam, we occasionally reached a topic that I had difficulty teaching. Each time one or another member of the class stepped in to guide the discussion.

At the end of the week, I thanked the class for allowing me the opportunity to assist them with their pursuit of the CCDE certification. I remarked that they had been an incredibly patient group and they had made me, a first-time instructor, very comfortable. Immediately several students expressed surprise that I wasn’t a seasoned teacher. Each of them remarked about how at ease I appeared during the class and how well I handled such a difficult group. My internal read on the situation was exactly the opposite of theirs. Several months after the class concluded, I began to receive emails from students thanking me for the assistance I provided, and letting me know about their success on the CCDE Practical exam. By my count, five of the seven students who ultimately attempted the CCDE Practical passed after our class.

You would think this experience had put my mind at ease, and teaching future classes would be much easier. Well, I’ve taught well over a dozen week-long CCDE bootcamps, and many more online classes, and I still get nervous before I introduce myself at the beginning of each session. The Imposter Syndrome is a part of my professional life, and I’ve come to accept it. In fact, I count on it to ‘keep me hungry,’ so I continue to study the various technologies involved in network design just as I did in 1997, when I truly did not know anything about networking.

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I do in some ways fear that as the Imposter Syndrome is more openly discussed, it will become less prevalent. This could have the unfortunate effect of causing overconfidence, where everyone who knows about this syndrome thinks they suffer from it, even when they are, in fact, under-informed about their chosen craft. I somehow doubt this will be an issue except for the small minority who never actually had the condition to begin with.

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Here are a few more references to Imposter Syndrome from @aliciatweet. She appears to be the source of the image at the top of this post, or at least the original infographic that this was based on:

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - https://medium.com/@aliciatweet/overcoming-impostor-syndrome-bdae04e46ec5

You Don’t Have Imposter Syndrome - https://medium.com/@aliciatweet/you-don-t-have-impostor-syndrome-126e4c4bdcc

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Jeremy Filliben is a network architect and CCDE instructor. He has assisted over 80 students in their successful pursuit of the Cisco Certified Design Expert designation. His next CCDE Practical Bootcamp class is scheduled for July 25th. More details can be found on his website at www.jeremyfilliben.com. 

Is Network Design an Art?

I get a little worked up when I see network designers describing our craft as an ‘art.’ I understand where the thought comes from; there is certainly a level of creativity required to arrive at an optimal network design for a given set of constraints and business challenges. It is nevertheless my opinion that we are working within a science, not an art. The key differentiator is whether we can judge one network design to be superior to another. With the traditional arts, it not objectively possible to say one song/painting/movie is ‘better’ than another. We can measure them on various points (Rotten Tomatoes [link] scores for movies, sale price for paintings, etc), but how any one individual perceives an artist’s creation is not open to debate. I like Dumb & Dumber more than Casablanca, and no amount of objective information is going to change my mind! 😃 

This is not true with network design. If two network designers review a set of business and technical requirements, they may generate unique proposals. When this occurs, invariably one or more of the following are at the root of the disagreement.

A) They interpreted the requirements differently, or the requirements were defined well enough

With good network designers, this is often the root cause. It is possible that they did not receive the same requirement information. More often, one of the engineers overlooked a key piece of information, such as a customer preference or existing technology choice that must be taken into account. If the requirements were not well-defined, assumptions must be made. These assumptions become quasi-requirements, which lead to different solutions.

B) Have differing personal opinions on the implementation details of a solution

Also known as ‘practical experience’ — These are the biases that we have developed over the years of deploying and managing technologies. Pretty much every network engineer has a preferred IGP, for example. Perhaps you have worked more often with OSPF networks, and therefore you are more comfortable using it to solve most problems. That does not make it the right choice for every proposed network design. This point of disagreement can also result from negative experiences, especially as they relate to implementation-level problems. Remember that Cisco OSPF in IOS-XR bug that kept you up for several consecutive nights, or the time IS-IS ‘blew up’ for you because you added a Juniper router to a Cisco network (hopefully not real examples for you). While implementation-level details should factor into real-world designs, do not let them talk you out of the correct technology solution (especially on a CCDE exam, hint hint).

C) Do not share the same knowledge base / understanding of the design elements

This is the category of disagreement related to the knowledge of our network designers. If one engineer proposes an IS-IS solution, and the other engineer has no experience with the protocol, there is very likely to be a disagreement.

For humble network architects, this should not be a problem. We all have our areas of expertise, and I can assure you no one is an expert in all possible technologies. Those technologies with which I have less practical experience can still be valid solutions to a problem. It is my responsibility as a network architect to have a solid understanding of these options, and if one appears viable I must put in the time to study it to see if there is a place for it in my proposal. I recommend knowing enough about each networking technology to answer the following questions:

1) What problems can it solve?

2) What are the pre-requisites?

3) How well can it scale?

4) How manageable is the resulting design?

That short list is in my experience sufficient to know when/where a technology can be useful. I can quickly rule out those that won’t fit (for example, if L2 adjacency is required, I can rule out L3VPN) and then spend time researching the remaining options to find the best answer.

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Note that none of these points of disagreement allow us to develop unique, equally-valid solutions to the original problem.  Perhaps in the simplest cases it does not matter if we choose OSPF or EIGRP as our IGP, but with enough probing we should be able to find information that leads us to one specific solution. Maybe we could ask the following questions:

1) Are you concerned with vendor lock-in?

2) What is your convergence requirement?

3) Does your support team have operational experience with either protocol?

4) To what size do you intend to scale the network?

5) Might you deploy dynamically-calculated MPLS-TE tunnels in the future?

After getting honest answers to these questions, two network designers should be able to come to an agreement on the correct IGP.

BTW, I am not disagreeing with the core tenet of Art of Network Architecture, and not just because Russ and Denise are two of my favorite people in networking. The point I am making is that there is a difference between network architecture and design.

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Jeremy Filliben is a network architect and CCDE instructor for Pristine Packets. Details about his training can be found on his website, www.jeremyfilliben.com. Jeremy has trained over 80 CCDEs in his 7 years in the industry.